News

November 20, 2009

Canton Student Wins $10,000 Powerball Prize

Mariah Taff of Canton knew that her grandmother liked to play Powerball and so she decided to give it a try. She spent $1 on a Powerball ticket on Nov. 13 – Friday the 13th – and matched four white-ball numbers and the Powerball to win $10,000.

"All the other times, I’ve played relatives’ birthdays, and that really didn’t work," explained Taff. "So I went with the random choice this time."

Taff, 19, is a full-time student at John Wood Community College in Quincy. She works part time as a janitor for the City of Canton. Her sister, Latricia, also works for the city of Canton, but has a part-time job at Casey’s General Store, 114 S. Fourth St. in Canton, where Taff bought the ticket. It was Latricia who checked the ticket and related the good news to Mariah.

"She called and told me to come up to the store," related Taff. "I thought something major had happened. I went back to the machine where it says how much you won and it said $10,000. I started laughing because I thought it was a mistake. I thought they added one too many zeros."

Taff and her sister have been lucky before. The two won $500 on a "Haunted Fortune" Scratchers ticket last year. Their mother, Randie, said the girls have a "golden horseshoe," since the most she has ever won is $30. Even grandma was surprised.

"She almost had a heart attack, because she’s never won anything that big," said Taff.

Taff said she would use the money for school, aside from giving a little to her mom and sister, and offered this advice for other players:

"Keep playing. You never know when it’s going to be something huge."

Powerball is a multi-state Numbers Game with jackpots starting at $20 million.